By The Vanguard Staff
SACRAMENTO, CA – Teens unlawfully detained by Sacramento Police Dept. officers led to a federal lawsuit and now a $223,000 settlement with the city of Sacramento—paid for by taxpayers, although just two of the officers involved took home more than that in pay, and didn’t contribute to the settlement.
A federal lawsuit stated officers approached the three 13- and 14-year-old teens—two Black and one Latino—and told them to “get the f— on the ground” as they were walking to McDonald’s on Mack Road in Sacramento’s Parkway neighborhood in June of 2019, according to a Sacramento Bee story.
The city paid $175,000 to the boys, that was split between them, said Kellie Walters, attorney for the teenagers, to The Bee.
The Bee wrote, “The boys followed orders, knelt on the concrete with their arms above their head, and one officer held them at gunpoint, the lawsuit stated. Officers then split them up for questioning about a burglary that occurred 10 minutes earlier by Latino adults at a location that was 30 minutes walking distance, the lawsuit alleged. One boy was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.”
One of the officers in that incident, Sarabjit Virk, is still an officer with the city, said city spokesman Tim Swanson. The other officer, Linda Matthew, is no longer an officer with the city. Her last day was Aug. 9. 2023.
One of the Black teens received $106,000 for two incidents—a year or so after the McDonald’s incident, in October 2020, he was grabbed by SPD officers Brandon Lundgren and Connor Lawrence as he was leaving Delta Shores movie theater in Meadowview just before 10 p.m.
The Bee said, “When they arrived the officers can be heard on their body cameras calling the kids ‘ghetto’ and ‘retarded’, according to an October 2021 disciplinary letter they received. After the kids did not follow police orders to leave, Lundgren told a 14-year-old Black boy ‘alright, first victim,’ then handcuffed him and put him in the backseat of a patrol car,” noting, “There is two hundred of you roaming around, being a pack of animals.”
Lundgren can be heard saying to the boy on a body camera, according to the disciplinary letter, “It’s like a pack of wolves out there destroying the community … you are not going to get away… I could tase you, I could bola wrap you, I could shoot you with a bean bag round. I could deploy a dog on you. I mean is this really how you are going to grow up and live your life, just f— the police? … Live a great life and show some respect. Because right now, you are the problem with our society. You are the problem with our country,” according to The Bee.
Lundgren and Lawrence had to attend additional training, according to the disciplinary letter on the city web page in July. Both are still on the force.
The city paid $48,000 to settle that case, according to a March settlement agreement posted to a city web page last month.
The Bee noted SPD “has no policy prohibiting the handcuffing of minors, unlike Baltimore and San Jose, adding, “Last year, unidentified Sacramento officers handcuffed a Black 10-year-old girl as she sobbed. The city’s Office of Public Safety Accountability Director LaTesha Watson and Inspector General Dwight White showed the council the video in June during a discussion about police racial bias.”
As punishment, said The Bee, Lawrence and Lundgren attended “a three-day training involving ‘resilience, compassion and leadership for law enforcement,’” the letter stated, and had to “participate in a two-week assignment in the department’s Outreach and Engagement Division to complete a ‘community engagement project’ involving south Sacramento youth.”
The Bee wrote Lundgren was involved in a use of force causing great bodily injury to a Black female Jan. 19 at Mack Road and Center Parkway, according to the department website. The department has not yet released documents detailing that incident.
Lundgren was paid $127,540 last year. Lawrence made $113,582 last year, but the city’s nearly a quarter-million dollars in payments in the civil suit settlement was paid not by the officers but by city taxpayers.
